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ABSA 2009: Hutchison/Bergmann have tight grip on Special Vehicle CCS.

A fourth win in five events on the recent Sun City 400 leaves Motorite pair Evan Hutchison and Achim Bergmann with a hand apiece on the Special Vehicle and Class A championships in the South African Absa Off Road Championship. Hutchison and Bergmann now have a 52 point lead over the father and son pair of Nick and Ryan Harper in the Atlas Copco BAT. Both crews have a 100 percent finish record so far this season and will have to drop one result at the end of the season.

But while Hutchison and Bergmann are in a comfort zone, the Harpers are only four points clear of former champion Shameer Variawa and Siegfried Rousseau in the Team Total Porter. Variawa and Rousseau halted a three race winning streak by Hutchison and Bergmann when they won the Toyota 1000 Desert Race in Botswana.

Behind the Total crew there is also a good scrap between Mike Whitehouse and Mathew Carlson, in the Regent Racing BAT, and Limpopo crew Naeem Moosajee and Mohammed Moultson. Only five points separate the two crews who also have 100 percent finish records this season.

In the overall championship the current Class B and Class P leaders also make it into the top 10. Class P leaders Johan and Etienne Bezuidenhout (Adenco BAT) are eighth and Class B leaders Derick du Toit and Ian Pienaar (Orange Tree BAT) ninth.

Because of anomalies in the off road scoring system the situation in Class A is a little different. Here Hutchison/Bergmann and the Harpers still top the standings, but Whitehouse and Carlson and Moosajee/Moultson move ahead of Variawa and Rousseau.

Two wins in a row on the Desert Race and the Sun City 400 have taken Cape Town crew du Toit and Pienaar into a comfortable 30 point lead in Class B. Consistency has lifted brothers Keith and Andrew Makenete, in a Zarco, into second place ahead of Bez and Deon Bezuidenhout in the Adenco BAT.

Since winning the first event of the season, the Adenco 400, the Bezuidenhout’s have run into a string of non finishes that have not done their championship hopes any good.

Two non finishes in a row have also hit Class P leaders Johan and Etienne Bezuidenhout in another Adenco BAT. They still lead the class but are now only nine points clear of brothers David and Gary White in the Ruwacon BAT. The next round of the Absa Off Road Championship, will be the Highveld 400 at Carnival City on August 28 & 29.